Keys

The gates of the Underworld are locked. Everyone knows that. They open only to admit the shades of the dead — but over the millennia, common motifs wear grooves in the fabric of death itself. Every bloody-handed murder, every plague, every senseless accident that snatches away a life, leaves an impression on the land of the dead. It’s a process not unlike taking a wax impression of a lock, but in reverse: Instead of the tumblers imprinting on the soft wax of the key, the Key shapes the lock to fit itself.

While anyone with the proper knowledge can use these Keys to open Avernian Gates (p. 191), the Bound, standing as they do on the borders between the land of the living and the land of the dead, are themselves doors to the Underworld. Unlocking themselves yields a rush of power and Plasm. That power doesn’t come free; each Key bears a Doom that afflicts those who call on its power. If there’s an argument for the active, thinking malevolence of the Underworld, it may well be these.

Sources of Keys
• Innate: Each of the Bound has one innate Key, representing the manner in which they died. Every geist
similarly has an innate Key, which they share with their Sin-Eater as part of the Bargain.
• Mementos: Every Memento (p. 131) has a Key. Possessing a Memento allows a Sin-Eater to use its Key.
• Ectophagia: Wholly consuming a geist with ectophagia (p. 99) grants the geist’s innate Key as a new
innate Key.
• Multiple Instances: The Bound may have multiple instances of the same Key, either as innate Keys or through Mementos. This allows them to use the Key more often.

Using Keys
Keys enhance the power of a Sin-Eater’s Haunts. The Bound may elect to “unlock” a Haunt with a Key as part of the Haunt’s one-dot power. Unlocking a Haunt is a reflexive action with the following effects.
• Unlock Attribute: Add the Key’s Unlock Attribute to the power’s dice pool. Any Enhancements that call for a Synergy + Haunt roll also benefit from the Unlock Attribute.
• Free Plasm: Gain Plasm equal to your character’s rating in the Key’s Unlock Attribute. This can exceed the character’s maximum Plasm pool, but excess Plasm is lost at the end of the scene.
• Per Turn Limit Exemption: Free Plasm ignores the normal limit on how much Plasm you can spend in a turn.
• Resonance: If the Haunt’s usage matches the Key’s Resonance, the Haunt gains an exceptional success on three successes instead of five.
• Doom: Unless the unlocked Haunt rolls an exceptional success or the Sin-Eater pays 1 Willpower, she gains the Doomed Condition (p. 121).
• Multiple Unlocks: Characters may only unlock a Haunt with one Key at a time. They may unlock a Haunt with multiple instances of the same Key, but only the free Plasm and the Doomed Condition stack.

DOOMED The Bound drinks too deeply of the Underworld’s mysteries and finds their own fate controlled by the Old Laws that first created the Keys. They can’t help but find themselves drawn to situations that reflect the deaths they now draw on for power. A sense of malaise and hunger grows at the back of the Bound’s mind as they go about their lives, unaware of the well-trod steps they find themselves following. Effects: • Note this Condition as Doomed (Key, Source). A character may be under the effects of multiple Dooms at once, even from the same Key. • You cannot unlock Haunts with the same Key from the same source (i.e. the same Memento or the same instance of an innate Key). • This Condition ends (without resolving) at the end of the story. Possible Sources: Unlocking a Haunt. Resolution: • Resolve the Condition as described in the Key’s Doom. • Help a ghost whose death fits thematically under the Key to resolve an Anchor.

The Door Has Many
Is every drowning a candidate for the Key of Deep Waters? Will every gun death gift the Key of Blood? These are questions that may be raised at the table and it’s up to you to decide. It’s entirely possible that even though a Sin-Eater died by drowning after falling from a bridge they may find they resonate with another Key. Perhaps the bridge and the deaths on it are part of a larger history (Grave Dirt) or they were pushed (Blood) or all of this was entirely coincidental to the fact that plummeting headfirst into the water was part of a ritual that was needed to feed the bridge (Chance). It’s up to the players and the Storyteller to agree what makes sense for the chronicle they are playing. 

Unlocking Without A Haunt
Sin-Eaters desperate for Plasm (for example, to downgrade incoming damage) may unlock a Key without activating a Haunt as a reflexive action. They gain the free Plasm and Doomed Condition.